The San Diego Convention Center is the primary convention center in San Diego, California. It is located in the Marina district of downtown San Diego near the Gaslamp Quarter, at 111 West Harbor Drive. The center is managed by the San Diego Convention Center Corporation, a non-profit public benefit corporation.
The convention center offers 615,700 sq ft (57,200 m2) of exhibit space. As of 2009 it was the 24th largest convention facility in North America. It was designed by Canadian architect Arthur Erickson. Capacity for the facility is 125,000.
The center's most distinguishing feature is the Sails Pavilion, a 90,000 sq ft (8,400 m2) exhibit and special event area. The Sails Pavilion's roof consists of distinctive Teflon-coated fiberglass "sails" intended to reflect San Diego's maritime history, as well as to advertise the center's proximity to the San Diego shore. The Pavilion was originally built as an open-air facility under the roof. However, the center found it hard to convince potential users to book an open-air facility, so the Pavilion area was enclosed in glass, greatly expanding the usable area of the center.
Read more about San Diego Convention Center: History
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